Top 10 Taxes and Fees

Read More About

Recommended For You

6

Credit, Debit Card Processing Fees

If you, like most restaurant owners, allow payment cards in your restaurant, then you’re subject to credit and debit card processing fees. There are two main pricing plans on the market for these fees: bundle pricing or interchange plus pricing.

With bundle pricing, you agree with your processor to pay a blanket fee (2.5 percent, for example) on every transaction. In addition to this, the processor may charge additional nominal fees, such as a statement fee or an interchange fee.

The interchange plus pricing strategy, on the other hand, looks at each individual transaction and charges the precise interchange fee, plus an agreed upon mark-up. With this strategy, debit cards incur different fees than credit cards. For example, a Visa debit card charges 1.19 percent in interchange fees, whereas a Visa credit card charges 1.54 percent.

These fees can amount to huge expenses each year, Bernicker says. In fact, for an average restaurant that has debit card sales of $400,000 a year, the total interchange can cost more than $5,100.

7

Gross Receipts Tax

Certain states—including Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, among others—have begun imposing gross receipt taxes to make up for the continually decreasing income tax revenues state governments are receiving each year. This tax, as opposed to an income tax, applies to the total gross revenue of a company instead of the net income.

“In other words, the state isn’t looking at what the bottom line is,” Polakow says. “They’re looking at what the top is.” A gross receipts tax doesn’t consider whether the business has gained any profit from a transaction; instead, it taxes every transaction, whether the business incurs a profit or loss.

8

Gift-Card Tax

If you think revenue from gift-card purchases is excluded from taxation, think again. Gift-card revenue is just like any other source of revenue that goes into a business’ income tax calculation, and when gift cards remain unclaimed, they can be a liability for restaurant owners.

“They don’t necessarily just become the property of the restaurant owner,” Roberts says. “They do need to generally be turned over to the state.”

This unspoken-for property falls under the category of “escheat laws,” which means funds from unclaimed property—like gift cards and even paychecks that an employee never picks up—must be
remitted to the state. “It’s a quantified tax,” Roberts says, “but it’s … basically saying that’s not money you get to keep.”

9

Music Licensing Fees

If you want to set the mood for your diners with music—whether it be easy listening or energetic pop tunes—you’re going to have to pay for it. Federal copyright laws, which have been in place since 1909, say that people or businesses—restaurants included—cannot use a copyrighted song without the songwriter’s permission.

“You may own a CD because you bought it, but you don’t own the song on it,” Candilora says. This means that to play any songs, CDs, or soundtracks in your stores, or even to use them in TV ads, you must pay a fee to obtain permission.

That’s where the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) comes in. It allows businesses to pay an annual fee for access to a massive database of songs. The minimum fee is less than $1 a day, but fees can go up depending on the kind of performance (live or soundtrack) and the audience size.

“You get to use over 8.5 million songs,” Candilora says. “You get to use them as much as you want or as little as you want, and you still pay this one simple flat fee.”

10

PCI Compliance Fee

Some credit and debit card processors require their merchants to pay this fee related to data security for credit and debit card information. The fees make sure “that software and POS systems are compliant with the latest data-security standards,” Bernicker says, so that a customer’s information is protected. “What you’re seeing is a fee being passed through or charged to the merchant for compliance with PCI standards.”

Along the same lines, noncompliance with PCI standards can result in heavy fines for a business. Banks can be charged anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 for noncompliance, and this fine is often passed down to the merchant.

Tax Incentives to Take Advantage of Now

Make sure you’re not missing out on tax incentives that can save you money and put extra cash in your pockets.

Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act: Enacted in 2010, this act allows businesses to lower their payroll taxes by hiring previously unemployed workers. In addition, for each “qualified employee” who works at least 52 consecutive weeks, employers are eligible for a tax credit—known as the “new hire retention credit”—up to $1,000.

In order to qualify for the credit, the employee must have been out of work for 60 days before being hired, and the employee must be hired between February 3, 2010, and January 1, 2011. For more information, visit www.irs.gov.

Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC): This offers a 40 percent credit up to the first $6,000 in wages for employees who have a harder time finding jobs. Amended in 2009, the WOTC lists 12 groups—from veterans and Hurricane Katrina victims to ex-felons and disconnected youths—that employers can target for employment.

Employers have the ability to choose who to hire and can hire as many employees who qualify for the credit as they desire. The tax credit can be as much as $2,400 for each new adult hire, $1,200 for each summer youth hire, $4,800 for each disabled veteran, and $9,000 for each long-term TANF recipient (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) hired over a two-year period. Check out www.doleta.gov for more information.

Health Care Tax Credit: This credit offers small businesses a way to afford health care coverage for their employees. Small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees (or 50 part-time employees and any combination thereof) and average wages of less than $50,000 can receive a 35 percent tax credit on the health insurance they provide their employees.

To qualify, the employer must cover at least 50 percent of the cost of health care coverage for at least some of its workers. To find out more, go to www.irs.gov.

1603 American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act (ARRTA) Program: If your restaurant is planning any major green projects, you should check out this program, administered by the Department of Treasury and the Department of Energy. It offers renewable energy project developers cash payments equivalent to 30 percent of the project’s total cost.

As of February 25, 2011, the program has funded more than 7,100 projects and given businesses more than $6.4 billion for their sustainable efforts. Go to www.treasury.gov for further information.

Pages

Comments

Your paraphrasing of Amy Roberts comments on property taxes is misleading. If all property values are falling, your property taxes may not fall at all. It depends on your value relative to all other values in a taxing district.

Many states will be increasing their unemployment rates and taxable wage bases to replace devastated state unemployment funds. Some states' funds are insolvent. Some 30 states borrowed funds from the Feds and the interest payments are coming due and many employers will be assessed additional taxes to make these interest payments.